Schengen Information System II delayed until late 2009

The Schengen Information System II (SIS II), which was supposed to have been in place by now, was initially delayed until the end of this year. But member states have asked that the new system, an upgraded computer database allowing better exchange of information between the member states and the storing of biometric data, be further delayed to between June and September 2009.

“We do want as the ultimate goal SIS II because it is a safer, more sophisticated system. That’s why member states requested, I would say unanimously, more time for testing national systems,” Franco Frattini, commissioner for justice, freedom and security, said after an informal meeting of justice and interior ministers last week (25 January).

A Council of Ministers document shows that the expansion of the border-free zone to include nine new member states last year led to the delays in SIS II implementation since “many member states (especially the EU10) had admitted that they are already stretched for resources/expertise”.

The Commission will draw up a timetable of when the system can be implemented when ministers meet again in March while a group of interior ministers from Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, France, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Italy and Austria will oversee the implementation of the system.

Slovenia’s Interior Minister, Dragutin Mate, also said that for “security and stability” reasons states would enter SIS II gradually rather than all joining together.

Sweden told the informal meeting of ministers that it would not accept a proposal designed to make divorce for couples from different EU states easier. The proposal, published by the Commission last year, would allow couples of different nationalities to choose which divorce law suited them best.

But Sweden said it would not implement divorce laws from other states which conflicted with its own liberal laws. “Applying more restrictive rules on divorce to some groups – for example rules requiring long separation periods or fault grounds – would mean a major setback in providing equality,” Sweden’s Justice Minister Beatrice Ask said in a letter to Slovenia’s Justice Minister Lovro Šturm.